AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE ALLEGATIONS RE THE QUANG NGAI PIC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00337R000300070026-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2001
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: July 17, 1970
• Content Type: MF

Approv
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FORM RFEB M 55.24 I REPLACES FORM 36-8 (47)
WHICH MAY BE USED.
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17 July 1970
25X1A
SUBJECT : American Friends Service Committee
Allegaeions re the Quang Ngai PIC
1. A somewhat oddball item came up at the 17 July
Sullivan ,".'Committee meeting, one with which we could possibly
get involved. The story briefly seems to be this:
a. The Con Son.'sTiger Cage" publicity
apparently induced a M.r. Louis W. Schneider
of the American Friends Service Committee
(AFSC) to write a letter to President Nixon with
various attachments. Copies of the package were
sent to various people including the "Special House
Committee to Investigate War in Indochina." It
was in the capacity of members of this special
committee that Congressrnen Anderson and Hawkins,
who saw the Con Son cages; went to Vietnam.
b. A copy of the package is appended
hereto. You will note, that its last enclosure
is a letter (or portions of a letter) to Congress-
men Anderson and Hawkins from a Dr. Marjorie
Nelson, who apparently was working in Quang
Ngai Province as a physician on an AFSC project
from October 1967 until October 1969. This
letter from Dr. Nelson and her allegations are
also referred to in Mr. Schneider's 10 July
letter to Ambassador Bui Diem, which is also
part of the package.
c, Dr. Nelson alleges that she treated
patients, including women (one seven months
pregnant) who had been systematically and
deliberately tortured in the Quang Ngai
Provincial Interrogation Center.
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surnT/SEHS E
 $ECRETISEUUSJTiV
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d. Mr. Engel (Director, Vietnam Working
Group -- Free Matthews' replacement) said Dr.
Nelson was testifying before a congressional
committee on the morning of 17 July. When
pressed, Mr. Engel said he thought it was
the "Moss Committee" (a subcommittee of
the Committee on Government Operations),
but he was not sure.
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Pl1? Atli Y"'_' ia~ rr ~ r e~~~ er
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5. Some of the above data will probably have to be obtained
from I some may be unattainable. I will keep Sullivan
& Co. at bay until we can collect enough facts to caucus and determine
how best to proceed. I am sending copies of this note and its attach-
ments to Messrs. Meyer and.Maury who should be kept apprised of
developments as they occur.
25X1A
Special Assistant for Vietnamese Affairs
cc: Mr. Cord Meyer
Mr: John Maury
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3-
EC~ES(SE~'SIi1VE
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CPYRGH~,d if
Miss
iled
.ers'
roh-
on
to
the
ding
her
ex-
"s hat
ati,ap-
Udhat
;one
ere
i took
the
ally
Second Viet Prison
Is balled inhuman
United Press International' Ij
A report of a second South fractures of the bones follow-
prison where in. ing beatings. Prisoners also
Vietnamese A
mates were tortured and sub- told me of being tortured by )'
jetted to "inhuman practices" electricity, with wires attach
was disclosed yesterday by one ed to ears, nipples, and genit-
of the congressmen who drew alia, by being forced to drink attention to "tiger cage" cells concoctions containing power-
on Conson Island. ed lime and other noxious sub-
4 the stances, by being tied up and
tt
l
e
The report, a
er o sus ended by ropes, often up-
congressmen from an Ameri- p
s'de down from the rafters
s4,1. down from the raftcrs~
rbC
to-
e
)lice
ting
lack
man
')be
had able to document by x-rays, chief.
visiting Conson that abuse of crowding there was neither
'ged prisoners was widespread in running water nor latrines in
and South Vietnam. any of the rooms where pri-
silty Late yesterday Anderson re- soners were confined from 6
He ported he had arranged for the p.m. to 6 a.m. and food and
trial letter's author, Dr. Marjorie water were both provided inI
the Nelson of New Haven, Conn., unsanitary if not contaminated I
'd? to testify today before a House condition."
ead- Foreign Operations subcom
Sentences-Officials said 80
to mittee looking into South Viet-
a as per cent of the inmates were
the narnese prison conditions.. political prisoners," but con- '
Dr. Nelson served 13~monthe versations with many of them
Mc- at the Quang Ngai province
n indicated' theirpolitical crime
g was improper or incomplete
O' civil n h mber, ospital. 1968; Beginning not ng long
:oss- S Septe
urge after spending 59 days as a papers, presence in an unau-
ness captive of the Vietcong. thorized place "or in the case
tion She emphasized in her let- of the women, inability to ac-
mce ter that overcrowded prison count for the whereabouts of
wen conditions and a nearby pro- their husbands who were there-
fore assumed to be NLF (Vict-
vi interro .on c e n t e r cong) guerrillas." Officials said
was were -s blame, not prison no one was supposed to stay in
th be administrators. the prison for more than six
Here are excerpts of her ac in o n t h s but the prisoners
!hen count: "never hadt a trial, and never
that Torture-"I saw dozens of knew the length of their sen-
iony patients with bruises of vary- ence. I talked with several who
!feet ing severity. I also examined were in for as long as a year."
they patients who had coughed up, Dr. Nelson said. she and a
vomited or urinated blood fellow worker unsuccessfully)
she after being beaten about the appealed for help to the Ameri-
chest, back and stomach. On can province senior 'adviser
had at least two occasions I was and the Vietnamese province
can woman doctor who served
13 months in Vietnam with the for hours . . I examined a
American Friends Service woman seven months pregnant
Committee, alleged dozens of who had been badly beaten
the previous week. This was
political tured at Q angr Ngai were the worst example .. .
wath electrical shocks, beat- Conditions-"The nurse as-l
ings and other abuses. signed to Quang Ngai prison
Rep. William A. Anderson was an opium addict, and I only
(D'-Tenn.) who placed the letter met him in the dispensary' once
in the Congressional Record in my 13 months there. Prison-
for publication today, said it ers themselves manned the dis-
validated his conviction since pensarv ... In addition to the
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 A pr ypd.
HENRY uL RITS
ItENRY J. C;F:D'3CftY
RRONSO; - -r. CLARK
E,cco(., - ,C'O ;y
Philadelphia, Pen~;sylv~iiiia 19102
July 10, 1970
Lj uis W. Schneider
, 0 /03/ SE f DP7 r00337R0003000
0 6-1"1/,
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ale s.'~
47
The President
The White House
Washington, D. C. 20500
We enclose a letter we have received from Ambassador Bui Diem
of the Republic of Vietnam together with a copy of our reply
with an nttaclunent ~r~ cam. f U C~~ s~:,~~ti% r r c VV% Y f
The treatment of political prisoners in South Vietnam is a
long-standing disgrace not only to the Thieu-Ky regime but also
to the Government of the United States which supplies the money,
the manpower and the advisers which keep this regime and its
methods in operation.
Is it not time, Mr. President, that the United States withdrew
its military forces from South Vietnam? Talk of reform within
the context of U.S. military intervention simply is not con-
vincing. The inhumane practices are too well entrenched and
the resistance of the Vietnamese people to the Saigon government
runs too deep to leave room for the hope that this alliance of
repression and violence will reform itself. -
LW-WS: vh
cc: Special House Committee to
Investigate War in Indochina
Ambassador David Bruce
Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker
Secretary of State Rogers
Mr. Henry Kissinger
Province Senior Adviser Cushing, CORDS
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